Kumar Vishwas kind of people is nothing new. They reflect a culture of #savarna justification of the wrongs they have done....

Aam Admi Party leader Kumar Vishwas's video of blaming 'reservation' in jobs for 'destroying' his age old 'sanskriti' is in the air. Actually the full video is about 45 minutes and is available on YouTube. I thought to watch it to understand fully what he wanted to say. It is clear that Aam Admi Party's foundations are shaky as far as secularism and social justice are concern. In the initial days of his movement, Arvind Kejriwal has been one of the prominent members of Youth for Equality which was spreading its canard and lies against reservation. The entire Aam Aadmi Movement under Anna Hazare's leadership has unambiguous anti Dalit-anti OBC undertones. It was clearly reflected that the forces standing behind Anna Hazare and Arvind Kajriwal were the upper caste Hindus essentially worried about the growing clout of the Dalit OBCs in our politics. No right wing Hindu can say politically incorrect words and riding on anti-muslim bogey was not that easy that time hence this corruption issue was raked up. Anna Hazare wanted to convert Indian democracy into a village Panchayat which Baba Saheb Ambedkar had long back said is based on majoritarian thoughts, where rule of law will never work but only might is right thought would be the ultimate law.

Arvind Kejriwal has tried to shed his anti-reservation image but continuously speaking of Dalits and Muslims. He has defended reservation too but of course these are compulsions but we have no issue with it. We believe politics teach you a lot of things and if some people learn from it, they should be welcomed.

A few of those who believed in social justice in the Kejri camps left it and now Kumar Vishwas has been given charge of Rajasthan. Kumar Vishwas actually hail from a Brahmin family belonging to the RSS. He is actually very proud of being a Brahmin and that gives him the sole authority to speak on Indian nationalism and utter any word under the pretext of 'deshbhakti' and corruption. AAP is going to Rajasthan and it will never be able to have a say there but it will nevertheless confuse people and divide their vote and the ultimate beneficiaries will be the Sangh Parivar. They did it in Goa too and wanted to do it in Punjab but failed.

Kumar Vishwas is roadside poet who likes to be clapped all the time. His numerous videos are available on YouTube and have become a popular figure. The one thing I wish to mention is being popular does not mean being correct. Kumar Vishwas has used all the brahmanical narratives to build his case. The entire narrative and 'history' that he speaks of is nothing but Sangh Parivar version of our history. Like them, he also, narrate, the mythologies in such 'courageous' way that they look 'history'.

Now coming back to the main point of his speech in Jaipur, which he was delivering to the AAP volunteers. Frankly speaking, he did not utter any name in the speech. He said that 'reservation' have divided our society. There was no crisis in the villages but after reservation people even joke with each other. He refer to a woman named as Lakshmi who came along with his mother... perhaps there might have been custom when you would send domestic servants or others in the marriage of your children and that shows the feudal, casteist nature of society that even a domestic were being send along with the bride as help or clean. I am quoting him,'

'Tell people that we can’t wait till 2019 as this man will not leave us. The country is in difficult condition. It is like this that a man came through the movement of reservation and divided the country, destroy our caste structure. Before that it was not so. Our village is a Brahmin dominated village. We had a sweeper woman whose name is Laxmi Amma. We would all call her Amma and she came along with my grandmother ( dadi) in marriage. All of us would give her respect. She would observe my mother and aunties and if they had not veiled themselves, she would abuse them and complain to my grandfather. None felt any offense with her abuses as they were in good faith. But today, if you speak you will feel offensive. I am not bother about as who will win in 2019 but I am more worried about the government who are destroying our religious structure which if broken, will be difficult to rebuild again which we have built in thousands of years. There should be no problem of celebrating Muharram and Dushahara. It is a matter of happiness. We don’t do the politics of appeasement'.

Two important points emerged from Kumar Vishwas's statement. One he is disturbed that 'reservation' has destroyed him. Second, he is talking of contemporary, narrating his own story so his target is not Dr Ambedkar, though, we know he has no love for him, yet for the moment, his target is Anti Mandal agitation, the period, when Kumar grew up in his locality. The politicisation of Dalit OBCs happened during the Mandal movement so who is he hating. It is VP Singh because he launched the anti-corruption movement which Kumar and thugs like him will never ever quote because VP threatened the caste structure too. With all his background, I can say firmly that Kumar Vishwas can’t respect Ambedkar, Kanshiram, VP Singh, Lalu Yadav, Mayawati or any other person who has dedicated his life for social justice and hence we must understand and feel it. It is not the target but the issue. He is pained that our 'social structure' is under the threat that his 'forefathers' built up in thousands of years and we all know what is that social structure which is so proud of and the answer comes in his speech subsequently and that is my second point about this great culture.

Vishwas's second alarming point was about Laxmi Amma who is a 'sweeper' and came during his grandmother's wedding to his home. What does it mean. Was it a custom too to send the cleaners, sweepers and other along with bride in marriage ? I think it was possible and how horrific would it be that you are giving people in dowery. I was not aware that such practices should happen but in a marriage two years back, I saw, the family had brought 'barbers, washer men, washerwomen, and other people from the village during the marriage of their daughter. Perhaps, this is still a practice to bring them and do the 'seva' of the baratis.

How do you call it tradition Pandit Sharma ? Is it civilised that a community is kept to do one particular work and is being imported from the bride's family ? And you want to make us believe that just by saying Laxmi Amma, you have given her 'respect'. Basically, the brahmanical system wants everyone to forget its own identity and do according to the 'Varna', only then, they would get a better Varna next life. It reflects the mind-set of the brahmanical system how it glamorises the oppression and keep people in illusion of next life.

Kumar Vishwas kind of people is nothing new. They reflect a culture of #savarna justification of the wrongs they have done. Rather than apologising for the historical wrongs and denial of dignity and space for Dalit Bahujan people, they continue to give narratives to justify their position. Unlike Justin Trudeau and many others in the West, who are now realising that the societies there did maltreat the indigenous people and apologise for it, Hindus in India have miserably failed to amend their order and make it more dignified. Brahmins like Kumar Vishwas can’t stand those assertive Ambedakrites Bahujan intellectuals and leaders who they call 'casteist' as they only need a Laxmi Amma to be a patron Saint of 'samarasta', which means nothing except to believe in your destiny, do things according to 'Varna' 'prescribed' for you and if you do good, hopefully, you will be upgraded in next life. For radical Ambedkarites, there is only one life and that we can’t wait for more and hence will fight the battle of dignity and right but there are thousand obedient who in the hope of 'next life' continue to fall in the well-laid trap of such Manuwadis. The biggest challenge before the Ambedkarites and Bahujaights activists and leader is how to wake those who are in these traps ? V T Rajshekar wrote long back that you can always wake up those who are sleeping but can't really wake those up who pretend to sleep ? The challenge is bigger but then our task is not completed if we are unable to wake them up and make them believe that there is only life and they will be doing a great disservice to their future generations if they don’t understand such dangerous narratives and philosophies which are made to keep people mentally enslaved and permanently subjugated. Such political outfits are actually detrimental to Dalits and other sections of historically denied communities if their leaders propagate that the movements for social justice into merely a casteist movement and glorify the existing caste structure. These lies need to be not only exposed but should be politically socially and culturally rejected in the greater interest of humanity.